American Cinematographer - May 2008 - (Page 66)

Beautiful Minds After attending the Central School of Speech and Drama and the London Film School, he began his acting career in Canada with the Canadian Broadcasting Co., during the heyday of live television drama. In the early 1960s, Erland segued into industrial design when his brother, who worked for furniture designer and filmmaker Charles Eames, told him Eames wanted to hire someone with both theatrical and technical expertise. Erland fit the bill. “In English drama schools, you learn to write the story, build the theater you’re going to [perform] in, and design and build the sets. It’s kind of grueling, but you come out of it knowing the trade quite broadly, which means you can transfer skills to all kinds of places.” One of his projects for Eames involved working on an audio-animatronic puppet theater Eames was designing for the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. When Dykstra began seeking recruits for ILM, Erland’s background in theater, film and industrial training made him a perfect fit. Erland later served as director of R&D for Dykstra’s new company, Apogee. While there, he was honored with Academy Awards and granted patents for inventions that included Reverse Bluescreen and the Blue-Max Flux Projector. An associate member of the ASC and founding member of the Visual Effects Society, Erland was instrumental in convincing the Academy to recognize visual effects as a separate branch of the Academy. He also devoted a great deal of energy to reactivating the Academy’s Science and Technology Council, which was shut down in the mid-1960s and reconstituted just four years ago. “Part of the goal in restoring the council was [to achieve] cooperation among a variety of industry groups and make things work effectively for everybody,” he says. “[Interaction] between these different groups is essential.” In 1993, Erland and his wife, Kay, founded Composite Components Company, which specializes in technology for travelingmatte composite photography. In 1996, they were awarded an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for the Digital Series Traveling-Matte Backing System. Jonathan Erland (left) received the Award of Commendation in recognition of his leadership and efforts toward identifying and solving the problem of High-Speed Emulsion Stress Syndrome. David A. Grafton (right) received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, an Oscar statuette, for his technological contributions to the industry. Among Grafton’s other innovations was a crossed-anamorph distortion-free lens with zoom focus for ILM’s matte department. According to Edlund, Grafton was also responsible for a breakthrough lamphouse and taking-lens design for the 35mm printer that was used to composite all the visual-effects shots in E.T. The Extraterrestrial. Now retired, Grafton enjoys taking his beloved yellow lab, Pamela, for walks. Looking back, he remarks, “I designed optics for anybody who needed them. I am retired, but if anybody wanted anything, I’d sure do it.” This year’s Award of Commendation was presented to Jonathan Erland for “his leadership efforts toward identifying and solving the problem of High-Speed Emulsion Stress Syndrome in motion-picture film stock.” The work was carried out in the early 1990s, while Erland was at Apogee Productions, a company owned by John Dykstra, ASC. (Fifteen years earlier, Dykstra had hired Erland to be part of the visual-effects crew on Star Wars.) Erland came to visual effects rather late in his career. He grew up during the World War II-era in London, where “my playgrounds were bombed-out buildings. When the V2 rockets came along, my brother and I were evacuated to Wales. It was quite an adventure!” Initially, he was drawn to acting. ACADEMY AWARD OF MERIT (Oscar Statuette) This honor recognizes basic achievements that have a definite influence upon the advancement of the industry. The Oscar was presented to: The Eastman Kodak Co. for the development of photographic emulsion technologies incorporated into the Kodak Vision2 family of color negative films. These technologies are breakthroughs in film speed, grain and sharpness that have made a significant impact on the motion-picture industry. The Vision2 family allows wider use of high-speed color negative film, lower light levels on set and faster setups. Most importantly, it improves the overall picture quality in theatrical presentation. “The cinematography community can take a lot of pride in this Oscar because its members really helped us make sure we were building the right kind of products for the industry,” notes Gary Einhaus, Kodak’s chief technical officer. “We involve cinematographers throughout the process, starting from the very early stages of our design concepts, when we show them images and get feedback. As soon as we have any experimental stock, we put it into their hands and get feedback. Our relationship with them really does influence [our] design.” 66 May 2008

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American Cinematographer - May 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Global Village: The Fall Short Takes: ASC Laszlo Kovacs Short Takes: Heritage Award Winners Production Slate: Anamorph Production Slate: Fugitive Pieces Heavy-Metal Hero A Need for Speed Kink and the City Beautiful Minds A Hollywood Homecoming Post Focus: Paramount Restores The Godfather Filmmakers’ Forum: Levie Isaacks, ASC Teaches Marines to Shoot Movies New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Antonio Calvache

American Cinematographer - May 2008

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